The Mystery of Life Energy

This book is an important exposition of life energy by a conventionally trained psychiatrist whose experience transformed the materialistic outlook of his training that does not recognise such an invisible healing force – instead, metaphorically referring to the heart as a pump, the eye as camera, and the brain as computer. Such energy is recognised in many other healing traditions (p. 35), and the author shows how Western science has failed to acknowledge – even resisted - this energy, from Mesmer to Reich, giving other examples such as the AMA debunking of therapeutic touch. The whole field of complementary medicine is strongly resisted by Wikipedia, and there is a derogatory letter from Jimmy Wales in response to a request by 10,000 licensed clinicians urging him to update the entry on EFT to include with recent research that validated its efficacy. Wales responded that this was the work of lunatic charlatans. End of story. As Leskowitz notes, science does not exist apart from politics, now reinforced by widespread censorship to maintain conformity and consensus.

The second part gives a cartography of energy medicine, while the third discusses practical applications of the energetic perspective, including phantom limb pain and being in the zone. The final part addresses various forms of group energies, Earth energies and global consciousness, all of which exhibit field effects. Earth seems to have its own subtle energy system, constellated at stone circles, sacred sites and perhaps in crop circles, in resonance with human energy. There is currently more research and even measurement of global consciousness, which is now subject to the interventions of behavioural psychology deployed by governments and intelligence agencies in the name of security. However, there is a growing appreciation of a multi-dimensional perspective, and the author concludes that ‘what started in the 60s as an uncoordinated upsurge in individual journeys of awakening has been transformed by our collective energetic bonding into a process of resonant global awakening’ - the energies of the 60s – peace, love, understanding, and care of the Earth – ‘have taken root, and either they will flourish or we will perish.’ The stakes could not be higher.